The New Wave of Mobile Internet With Android Tethering

Using your Android device to tether is pretty straight forward. If you are unsure as to what it is then allow me to explain. It is connecting your phone to your computer to allow your computer to have access to the internet. In fact, tethering has become a fairly popular means of accessing the internet as it allows you to connect via a 3G connection (which is sometimes faster than a cabled connection) and gives users an extra little bit of mobility in regards to connecting to the internet. However, some carriers don’t like people doing this and it might end up costing you a fortune (or worse) if you do it. So make sure your carrier is ok with it before doing it.

We will focus on USB tethering; chances are you got a USB cable with your phone and you won’t have to rely on a wireless connection in order to communicate with your phone via your computer. So to begin with you will need to connect your phone to your computer – an easy first step. Depending on your phone you might need a third party app to tether. Try the free version of PdaNet. Install it and run it. You will be asked to install the desktop client when you first run it. Your phone will download it and then you will need to run it from your computer in order to install it. Ignore any errors it throws up during install – it will all work fine and it isn’t a virus.

Make sure your phone is connected to your computer via USB when it is all set up (connect the phone in charge only mode) and run the PdaNet app. Select the enable USB tether option when it presents itself and wait for the notification to appear on your computer. It should bring up a little pane with a bunch of little buttons – find the connect option and away you go. Open up a browser on your computer to verify you have an internet connection and do some web searching. Keep in mind that you will not be able to access secure sites using the free version PdaNet. It is not an expensive app and if you intend to use it for the long haul consider shelling out a few bucks for the full version – you will be able to visit any website with it.

Depending on your phone you might not even need PdaNet. However, it is left to the discretion of your carrier whether or not it will actually work. You are likely to have an option that asks if you want to enable internet sharing when you plug your phone into your computer if it has the option to utilise this service. Some carriers will only allow you to connect if you pay a little extra for your service with a PAM service (Phone As Modem). Depending on the cost and data allowance it is worth checking into if you have a phone which supports this functionality (or PdaNet) and need to use this form of service.